Withnail and I

The best British comedy of the last 10 years (forget Four Weddings, this is actually funny) gets a well deserved re-release.

Withnail and I (Marwood in the script but his name is never mentioned in the film) live in squalor in 1969 and the world is falling down around them. They have no job, no money and no future. They decide a rejuvenating trip to the country is in order, so borrow a cottage off Withnail's Uncle Monty and set out, but find that living in the country is not as easy as it sounds.

The plot may not sound much, but that's because it isn't meant to be, the emphasis here is on the characters: the end of his tether I, the indescribable Withnail, the camp of gay Uncle Monty, drug dealer Danny, everyone knows people like these and knows the situations they are in: finally a film which deals with the important issue of washing up, I resorting to drinking coffee from a bowl with a spoon because no cups are clean. That is what makes the film so funny and endears it to so many people: this is not fantasy, it doesn't avoid the feeling of gloom that most students have probably felt at one time or another, but it also makes life seem more bearable. The film isn't just funny (as if that wasn't enough) but also captures the feeling of the end of an era with a poignancy that the ultra sappy ending of Four Weddings could never hope to achieve. A film that could change your life in some small way and one which is also hilariously funny.

Malcolm Cook